The present invention relates generally to illumination and lighting and, more specifically, to light reflectors and flood lighting systems.
Faceted reflectors are known to those of ordinary skill in the art for producing a highly uniform patch of light and are commonly used in the production of surgical lights, car head lamps, and other applications where an intense beam of light, directed to a singular patch of area, is necessary for accomplishing a particular goal. For example, faceted reflectors used as surgical lights illuminate the specific area of surgical importance for the surgeon; faceted reflectors illuminate the road surface for an automobile driver without directing light into the line of sight of the in-coming traffic.
Rigorous mathematical algorithms and computational modeling have been used to increase the uniformity of the singular patch and to improve the sharpness of the border between the singular patch of light and the background. Additionally, reflector designs have been conventionally used for side, flood illumination of parking facilities, such as parking lot or garages. These reflector designs generally include a geometric housing, i.e., parabolic, elliptical, etc. These conventional designs have proven to be highly useful and efficient both energetically and economically. However, the illumination distribution created by these geometric housings is quite limited. As a result, several geometric housings must be incorporated and properly aligned for illuminating a given area to achieve required illumination distribution. Again, there is room for improvement in the field of side, flood illumination reflector design, as well as more generally in the field of light reflectors and flood lighting systems.